DVD Q&A

Wes Anderson

Q&A with director Wes Anderson -- The ''Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'' helmer tells EW about not writing with Owen Wilson and the film's strange soundtrack

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By Paul Katz

The director who transformed Bill Murray into a Speedo-sporting action hero chats about The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

Life has pirates, explosions, chases — are you now an action director?

Michael Bay does good action sequences. I do, um, odd action sequences. I may have invented a new genre.

This is your first movie without Owen Wilson as co-writer.

By The Royal Tenenbaums, Owen was kind of a movie star. On Life, [co-writer] Noah Baumbach was able to meet every day. I like somebody to talk with every day.

Why have an actor cover David Bowie songs in Portuguese?

I thought it would be funny for someone to sing to the crew. And why not David Bowie songs? Then I made it an international ''Benetton'' crew, and it turned out one actor was also a pop star in Brazil. So it snowballed.

Posted May 16, 2005 | Published in issue #820 May 20, 2005 | Order Article Reprints